The notorious extreme right-wing, anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-woman fundamentalist Christian meme

A more accurate sign would read, "Guest Speaker Michele Bachmann - Come Let Us Help You Try to Cure Gay".  I imagine that "Pray the Gay Away" is also a construct of the Left  meant to ridicule the belief that homosexuality is unnatural and wrong. 

The way the "sign" reads intentionally implies a sense of power and self-importance that anyone who is or knows anyone like Michele knows isn't there. From what I can gather, the idea is that homosexuality is a result of psychological imbalance and can be addressed by restoring or bringing about a sense of self-worth and psychological balance. Through religion. I don't have a problem with this. Psychology is religion as well. At least as far as "therapy" goes, there's no real evidence to show that one is in fact superior to the other in matters of attaining balance.

Even if homosexuality is innate, and I have some sympathy for that point of view based on what I've seen in my life - the idea that it isn't -- is a valid belief. There are even people who claim to have been "cured" and I have no reason to doubt them. And if we're serious about respecting each others' religious beliefs, well you know that knife theoretically cuts both ways ... or better yet ... "any way you slice it".

I find Christians in general to be the most tolerant people in the world. (Remember, "tolerance" doesn't mean "I agree with you".  Tolerance means I will not subject you to coersion over our disagreement.)   I think most on the Left, at least when they start out, know this and it drives them crazy. It's a mantle they are trying to claim -- because leftism is ultimately about ego. The left can't stand the idea that people who disagree with them are more loving and tolerant than they are, and yet don't go around bragging about it for their religion also teaches them that they are imperfect and weak.  Humility is a virtue that the left does not recognize.   Well unless they want you to be humble.  It's really not for them.

Thus Christianity's image must be destroyed at every turn so that people will eventually never know it, and it will from that point forward be synonymous with "hate" to all. That's the plan.

What did I read somewhere today ... “the notorious extreme right-wing, anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-woman fundamentalist Christian group Focus on the Family.” Do a google search on anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-woman ... it is revealing. This is apparently a widely distributed catch-phrase.

Of course, it is lost on folks who buy in to this that being against the promotion of homosexuality and believing it is wrong (and even offering to help them overcome it) and "having it in" for gay people are not the same thing. These people want to help, not to harm.  It isn't anything even remotely like "hate".  As for the reflexive "anti-choice = anti-woman" ... this is of course, bunk. I know far too many women who are pro-life. This is the real reason they hate Bachmann and Palin. They don't fit the stereotype of the woman who is only pro-life because her husband has beat her into saying it. So they go with the "extreme fundamentalist Christian" tag -- you know, because anyone who disagrees with them over matters of right and wrong and stick to their beliefs is "extreme". But sticking to their own beliefs in the face of disagreement is not extreme. Christians are just "notorious" [hey, I thought you guys weren't into value judgements. "Notorious" is, like, so judgemental.]

Nobody's using the power of the government to round up gays and force them into places like the Bachmann clinic where they are chained to chairs and forced to pray, and there is no reason to believe that a President Bachmann would bring this about.  For one thing, Congress makes laws, not the president.  For another, Bachmann knows as well as anyone else that state coersion in these matters is generally counterproductive, and that it would be wrong.

Yes, some parents do force their kids to go, but some parents send their kids to psychologists, too, and as I said before, I don't see much difference.  It is their duty as parents to prepare them to be functioning, happy, moral adults, and it is their right as parents to do it according to what they believe (excessive physical coersion excepted).